On Thursday night, the Cornersville Middle School Lady Bulldogs ran their record to 2-1 on the season by pounding the E.A. Cox Lady Cougars 12-2 at home in six innings.

After overcoming an early one-run deficit, the Lady Bulldogs held a 4-2 lead through the first four and a half innings of play before crossing home plate eight times over the next two frames to claim the mercy rule shortened victory.

Cornersville cranked out 14 hits against Lady Cougar starting pitcher Abbie Blalock while E.A. Cox aided CMS' cause by committing eight errors. The Lady Bulldogs also took advantage of their running game and stole 10 bases in the contest.

Aggressive game

"We came out and were aggressive with the bats. When you hit the ball hard and force the defense to make plays, good things usually happen," said Cornersville coach Eric Crabtree. "We were also more aggressive on the base paths because we finally had a dry field to play on."

Lady Bulldog starting hurler Mikaela King helped her own cause by going 3-for-4 with a double and a RBI, while Sam Prosser (2 RBI), Jewel Anne Walls (2 RBI), and Hannah Singleton (1 RBI) each tallied two hits with Singleton stealing four bases. Kirsten Young (1 RBI), Madison Hopkins (1 RBI), Aliyah Holder (1 RBI), Emma Mitchell (1 RBI), and Courtney Darnell notched one hit apiece for CMS as well.

King also went the distance in the circle to pick up her first win of the year and allowed two runs, one earned, in six innings of work on six hits and two walks to go along with eight strikeouts.

Warming up

"Mikaela is the type of girl that it takes her an inning or two to get warmed up. Once she does she's pretty good," said Crabtree. "She's only a seventh grader so her best pitching is ahead of her."

Alise Maynard and Tassy Lyles each had two hits to pace the Lady Cougars at the plate, while Blalock added a double and 2 RBI.

E.A. Cox grabbed an 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Maynard scored on a RBI double by Blalock after reaching base on a CMS error and advancing to second on a Lyles bunt single.

Cornersville quickly counterpunched and pushed across three runs in the bottom of the first with the help of two Lady Cougar errors, a Singleton bunt single, a RBI single by Hopkins, a Prosser RBI double, and four stolen bases to seize a 3-1 advantage.

The Lady Bulldogs stretched their lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Holder raced home on a RBI single by King after drawing a leadoff walk and stealing second.

Blowing it open

E.A. Cox cut the deficit to 4-2 in the top of the fifth on a RBI groundout by Blalock, but Cornersville blew the game open by crossing home plate seven times in the bottom half of the frame on the strength of three Lady Cougar errors, a RBI double by Mitchell, a Walls two-run single, and RBI singles from Prosser, Holder, Young, and Singleton to forge a 11-2 advantage.

Cornersville then plated another run in the bottom of the sixth to bring the mercy rule into effect. Following a two-out single by King, courtesy runner Kianna Holder stole second before scoring on a Lady Cougar error to cap CMS' 12-2 win.